


We Are Who We Are

by theLiterator



Category: Young Justice (Cartoon)
Genre: Culture Shock, Family Drama, Friendship, Gen, High School, Humor, Hurt/Comfort, Multi, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder - PTSD, Sleepy Cuddles
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-10-21
Updated: 2014-10-21
Packaged: 2018-02-21 15:33:56
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, Rape/Non-Con, Underage
Chapters: 1
Words: 17,766
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2473352
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/theLiterator/pseuds/theLiterator
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Artemis is one of two non-metas on her team, and normally she's certain that that just makes her cooler, but when Robin and Batman get trapped and tortured, she's the first one on the scene to rescue them, and she has to deal with everything that reveals about them, and about herself. Plus, there's these kids at her school who won't leave her alone until she goes to prom with them, and Robin isn't acting right (who would, really, after that?) and seems to think it's perfectly okay to break into her room at night.</p>
            </blockquote>





	We Are Who We Are

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks to **thiefofsamhain** for the epic last-minute beta, and to **traxits** and **inoru-no-hoshi** for the handholding and generally being the most patient BFFs a fic writer could ask for.
> 
> Also, since this was a big bang, I got the most amazing art ever from **mikimoo** which I dropped in to the fic but can also be checked out at her [livejournal](http://miki-moo.livejournal.com/42328.html).

[](http://miki-moo.livejournal.com/42328.html)

### Dick:

Robin had two SOS beacons now, complete with trackers, because he had two teams. He'd never needed the second one before tonight, but Batman was taking his sweet time to come swooping to the rescue. He hiccupped out a giggle, and someone snapped, and the thug responded with alacrity. 

Crowbar to the gut, and that was just not on, but _Robin_ shouldn't scream.

Wouldn't scream.

He wriggled around and drove his foot (bare) against his utility belt (discarded on the ground) because he had two teams, and the first one must have been caught up somewhere because otherwise he'd have been there already.

Six minutes later, (the HUD on the nightvision setting for his domino has a clock) Batman was dragged in, chained up and furious.

Robin laughed again.

"Now you've done it," he snapped out, faking cheer and wit that he just wasn’t feeling. "Sure, you took out the cavalry, but what is it the wise man said? Oh, right-- you're trapped in here with _us_."

Batman sent him a glare that was decidedly not astrous, which made sense because he wasn't supposed to be watching R rated movies without Bruce sitting next to him, but both Bruce and Batman were always so busy and he liked to have fun, so what?

They took a turn trying to beat Batman, which, since they couldn't strip him (one tried), wasn't going so great for the thugs, and Robin was relieved that they weren't paying attention to him for a few precious seconds, until they _were_.

The woman snapped.

They'd left his pants alone, once they'd shredded his belt loops to take his utility belt and render him helpless.

They rectified that, and Robin tried to tell himself that the way his breath caught in his chest was just the fractured ribs talking, not fear, but he could _feel_ the way B froze up, and he could feel the sting where their knives cut through fabric and skin.

 _Now,_ he thought, _would be a great time for the team to come crashing in._

Batman was shouting at them, his voice a different kind of hoarse to normal, and their hands and knives were everywhere.

He, personally, was laughing, because that's what Robin was supposed to do, and a knife dug into his thigh, deep and painful now, no longer merely stinging.

He settled on his heels, though he was sure (Eleven minutes, where was his team?) he'd activated the second distress signal the first time, and the general detritus on the floor was cutting into the soles of his feet.

He was naked and...

"You can't be stupid enough to untie him," Batman said. "Even one limb free and he'll take all of you out!"

"I don't think so, my darling Bat," the person who'd been snapping said, and she snapped again.

A nerve strike had him tingling and suddenly limp in his bonds, and they dragged him to a table and forced him face down across it, and he was going to have _nightmares_ about that snap, so he giggled again.

The nerve strike wore off just as they were strapping down his foot, and he twitched the limb, too late.

"What is it you want? Money? Tech?" Batman was demanding. "He's a _little boy_!"

"Maybe you should have thought of that before you dressed him up as a little bird and sent him to lure out all the slavering hounds this town has to offer."

"Tell me!"

"I don't want anything, Batman, except to hurt you."

Her hand slid over his bare shoulder, and Robin tried to force another giggle to escape, but... it came out twisted and wrong and his gut was tight in a way that the undoubtedly disastrous internal bleeding couldn't quite account for.

Hands. Knives. Not laughter, anymore, and Batman was silent at the periphery of his awareness.

23 minutes.

He had the benefit of his domino and its nightvision, so he shouldn't feel smug, exactly, that he saw the girl in a dark corner of the room before she started shooting.

He groped for the mind link, but couldn't find it, and the nearest thug to Robin screamed and dropped out of his awareness.

He mouthed her name.

It was reckless for her to have come alone; if she'd had backup at all, Wally would have been the first one through the door to save them, of course.

"The team got called out," she said as three more thugs dropped. He watched her take to the rafters until he couldn't see her anymore. He was the only one, as far as he could tell, who didn't jump when her voice came from above, next. "I had _just_ gotten back from patrol when your call came in."

"Can you release me?" Batman asked, and the dead calm Batman voice was there, but something else lingered.

"I had to find new arrows in a hurry. Shouldn't have bothered."

A tiny explosion, and the Dark Knight of Gotham took on the remaining thugs.

"Don't kill 'em, B," Robin said when his mentor looked like he was going to snap a neck. "Police'll come."

Artemis landed lightly on the table, a boot on either side of his hips, just barely touching him. He shivered.

She cut him loose with one of the thugs' knives and then cast it aside with an obvious noise of disgust.

Robin pulled himself to his feet and looked just over Artemis's shoulder so she couldn't catch his gaze. He'd take sympathy from M'gann or Wally, or even Kaldur, but if Artemis tried to offer it right now, he'd probably...

Probably puke blood all over her (admittedly already gory) costume.

She went to pick up the shredded remnants of his costume, and he forced himself to settle on the table, lounging and smirking, for when she turned around.

She pursed her lips when she saw him, and she didn't throw his stuff at him, which he'd been hoping for, and she said, tentatively, "Well, that was-- whelming?"

"Disastrous," he corrected. "Heavy on the dis."

Batman was behind him. Where he was supposed to be.

"Hey, partner," Robin said. "Old chum," because he'd said that when he was eight and clinging to his parents and trying his best to not see Bruce as a dad, and he really missed being eight, suddenly.

Then, Batman's cape was wrapping around him, furling him back in shadows where he belonged (not naked and vulnerable and not-laughing) and it was like being eight again anyway, so he smiled his best smile and Artemis flinched.

"Are you coming?" Batman asked, and Robin looked up at him, because of course he was coming; where else would he go? And when he realized and looked back down at Artemis, she was already gone.

"The team--" Robin said, but Batman cut him off.

"I'll contact them once we've gotten back to the cave. It was fast thinking to alert them when you did."

"I--"

Batman stroked his hair, which cut off all lines of thought, and then they were in the Batmobile, and Robin blinked blearily at B.

"Sleep, Robin," Batman ordered, and Robin tended to obey Batman's orders except when they were _completely_ dumb, so he slept.

### Artemis:

"He's fine," Artemis lied once she was back in the cave, startling the group who were hastily righting their costumes in preparation for what would have been their second mission that night.

They stared at her, and she knew she was covered in blood. "That's not from rescuing him," she said. "There was some sort of infected zombie thing in Star City, and I barely bothered to grab more ammo before--"

She closed her eyes. "I bet Batman will be telling us to stand down any second now."

"What was wrong?" Wally asked.

"Robin was playing bait and pressed the wrong tracker," she said, fingers crossed behind her back.

They all stared at her with a great deal of skepticism.

"Batman's got him," she said. "Everything's under--"

"Batman to the cave," the monitor behind them came to life.

"Batman," Kaldur greeted calmly, turning on his heel and straightening his shoulders like he always did when Batman addressed him.

"Oh, good," Artemis said. "I was just _telling_ them how Robin pressed the wrong distress beacon and you had him and everything's fine."

You couldn't tell Batman's expression, everyone knew that, but she was pretty sure he was relieved.

"Thank you again, Artemis, for your prompt, if unnecessary, assistance."

"Yeah," Artemis said. "Sure, no problem."

"Get cleaned up; all of you. You're done for the night."

Artemis wanted to drag her heels, to dawdle the whole way to the showers so she wouldn't have to talk to M'gann, but she knew that wouldn't do her any good, so she sucked it up and moved on.

"Why did you lie?" M'gann asked, sounding more curious than irritated.

She didn't even ask the obvious question: "What are you lying about?"

Artemis sighed. "Batfamily secrets," she said. Which had the advantage of being not untrue. "I just... I don't want to think about it anymore."

She shuddered involuntarily, and shucked her costume before she could get distracted.

She really, really did not want to think about it anymore. Robin had been tied down, helpless, (she had no idea how he'd even triggered the distress beacon-- didn't want to know) and she knew that stuff happened on the streets-- of course she knew! But not to _them_. Not to _Robin_.

(He'd been laughing when she'd first dropped in. Laughing and crying.)

"If you want to talk about it," M'gann said gently from across the shower room. Artemis made a noncommittal noise and pressed her head to the tiles, trying not to think about it.

***

School the next day was horrible. _Everything_ made her think about the night before, and every time she was tempted to sit down and cry or maybe run off to find Robin and sit down and let _him_ cry, she couldn't help but hear his voice, hard and firm and serious, saying "Well, get traught, or get dead."

"I'm trying, Rob," she growled under her breath, startling a freshman who was leaning on a locker, obviously in a great deal of pain.

"Sorry," she said. "You okay?"

"Fine," the boy said shortly.

"Bullies, huh?" she asked. She'd seen how people jockeyed for power at Gotham Academy, for all none of them knew what a shiv even was, they were all the crueler, really, for the power and wealth their parents had.

The boy barked out a cough that could have been a laugh, if she hadn't been hearing the simple joy of Robin's laughter when he got one over on a villain like a soundtrack on repeat all night while she couldn't sleep. "Or something."

Artemis frowned, because that was another thing she knew with a great deal of intimacy-- ‘Or something’ had driven Jade away, and at least her father had the excuse of being a supervillain.

This kid's dad was probably some millionaire and there shouldn't be any ‘or something’ going on there at all.

"Well, let me carry your stuff; no one will mess with me. I can walk you to class, and bullies or something can just--" She bit her lip rather than continuing that sentence.

"No one will mess with you?"

"I'm a Wayne Foundation Scholarship student," she said, smirking. "I used to go to Gotham _North_. Everyone here seems to think it makes me badass."

"Does it?" the boy asked. He handed over his books and his bag. None of it was very heavy and though two backpacks was a little unwieldy, it wasn't anything she couldn't handle.

"No."

"You _seem_ pretty badass," he offered.

"Yeah, well, Gotham North isn't what did that to me. Where are we going?"

"Math. I sit behind you," he said.

"What." It wasn't so much a question as it was a protest, but the boy didn't offer a response either way.

"If you weren't so busy trying to pretend you hate school, you might have noticed me."

"Huh."

The boy was seriously limping, and his face was drawn and pale, but there was a spark of determination in his eyes that made her swallow down any further offers of help.

"My dad wanted me to stay home," he said, after a second. "And he's not the one who hurt me, either-- I can see the look on your face, okay? But I didn't want to, and I'm not going to."

"Okay," she agreed. "It's your body."

"Damn right," he snapped out, and she didn't startle, but it was a very near thing, and his face, when she glanced at him, was apologetic.

***

All in all, they shared five of her eight classes, including last period PE, where he slumped on the bleachers and offered a doctor's note when the teacher tried to push him into the locker rooms. It was weird that she had never even noticed him before, but, on the other hand, school hardly seemed like reality to her; not compared to the team and to Green Arrow and to... her fucked up family drama.

"I don't even know your name," she said, leaning on the base of the bleachers and staring up at him.

"You don't?" he asked, and the surprise in his tone was palpable.

"No," she said. "Sorry. I guess you think I should."

She didn't leave it as a question, because she didn't mean it as one.

"No," he corrected. "I thought you _did_. Richard Grayson," he offered. "And you're Artemis Crock."

She nodded, and he smiled. It was tight and rough at the edges, but she knew how it felt to smile like that, so she didn't say anything about it. "Yeah."

"Nice to meet you, Artemis Crock."

"You too, Grayson," she replied, and then the coach was blowing his whistle and she was jogging back the girls' side of the gym.

***

Outside, she was determined to wait with him for his ride, and she got to meet his 'best friend'.

She wasn't sure how she felt about the mouthy redhead; mostly ambivalent to a little bit dismayed-- she was the mouthy one, usually, and here she'd been hopeful that she'd get to go home tonight and tell her mom about making friends at school.

Her mom worried.

"Friend?" she asked skeptically. "Where _were_ you all day?"

"Pissed at _Dick_ ," the redhead replied. "He should have stayed home."

"I had a test in geography."

"You had a _doctor's note!_ "

Dick shrugged. "Babs, this is Artemis, Artemis, this is Barbara, yay, introductions, now can we stop railing me about whether or not I should be exercising my UN mandated right to a basic education?"

"You're hurt, Dick. My dad says--"

"Your dad and Bruce are always siding with each other. How would you feel if I let Bruce bully me into siding against you?"

Barbara opened her mouth to reply, and she looked furious, but then a sleek black car rolled up to the curb, and a familiar figure stepped out of the car.

"Bruce," Dick acknowledged, jerking his head in what could have been a nod.

Artemis turned to Barbara despite herself and mouthed 'Wayne?' incredulously.

"This is Artemis. You're paying her tuition," Dick added. "She agrees that it's my choice whether I come to school or not."

Bruce Wayne laughed, carefree and warm. "He's stubborn," Bruce Wayne said.

Artemis nodded, because she knew if she tried to come up with some sort of smartass remark all she'd be able to bring up would be resentment at the ninja scholarship or the fact that everything her team did was on Wayne or Martian tech, so thanks for helping stop crime everywhere?

Barbara squeezed her hand tight, and Dick let Bruce settle him into the car. The thing had a five-point harness and Artemis wanted to giggle at that. She wondered if Bruce Wayne fancied himself a drag racer.

### Dick:

Dick had been suppressing his yawn for the last three classes, so when the door slammed shut, wrapping him in the security of mirror-tinted windows and the comfort of Bruce's third favorite car, he couldn't help the fact that his mouth opened and he sucked in as much air as possible.

Possibly exhaustion plus slightly fractured ribs were making oxygen a thing.

Bruce didn't say anything when he got into the driver's seat, and Dick didn't let that unnerve him.

"I aced my geography test," he said, because that had been his excuse for coming to school, even though Leslie had told him he needed bedrest, that and the fact that he should never let his identity be compromised, so skipping school when Robin was known to have been horribly... injured... was a bad idea.

The truth had been more that he couldn't stand to be in the quiet of his own head for much longer. He'd have stayed home had he been assured of company, of Bruce sitting next to him on the sofa in the smaller tv room, with the Discovery Channel on and Bruce clicking at his computer, but that wouldn't have happened because Bruce...

Bruce wouldn't even look at him.

"Did you?" Bruce asked, shifting down because of traffic and not suppressing the customary little sigh he always made when traffic slowed him down.

"You didn't have to pick me up personally," Dick said.

Bruce's hands gripped the steering wheel so tightly his knuckles turned white.

Dick frowned and looked away. "You watched me at school," he said.

Bruce didn't reply.

"Now you don't want to talk?'

"You can barely _walk_ , Dick," Bruce said, but there was no irritation in his voice, only exhaustion that echoed the way Dick felt; cold and tired and muddied like Gotham on a winter night.

"Artemis was there."

"You thought she'd figured it out," Bruce said, confirming Dick's earlier accusation. "She's smart, but she lives in her own head."

Dick rolled his head back around to stare at Bruce's profile. "You say that like it means anything about observational skills. One of the best detectives I've ever heard of lives firmly inside his own head, which is currently residing firmly up his--"

"Enough!" Bruce yelled, and Dick flinched into his seat. He'd always been provocateur to Batman's shadow, and sometimes that leeched over to provoking Bruce as a son provokes a father, but never...

Not once...

Tears pricked hot and shameful at his eyelids, but he very carefully did not let them slide free.

He could just imagine how Bruce would react if he thought he'd made Dick cry.

"I apologize," Bruce said. Dick knew he had counted to ten, mostly because he'd counted with him. "That wasn't-- Please don't mistake my desire to protect you for..."

"A bit like locking the barn _after_ the arsonist burns it down, isn't it?"

Dick sucked in a ragged breath, because he just couldn't help picking at the exposed wounds.

"People say that to me about Gotham, sometimes," Bruce said, and his hand moved briefly to shift up to sixth because the traffic had cleared up, and then it came to rest, light and tentative, on Dick's knee.

"Are they wrong?" Dick asked. Robin would never have asked; wouldn't have dared, wouldn't have doubted, wouldn't have--

But his skin didn't feel right on his body, not even for Dick, so he asked.

"Even if they are," Bruce said, "I can't not protect it."

Even though his ribs were still fractured, Dick found that he could breathe more easily, suddenly.

"Okay," Dick said. "But... but I have to... I have to go to school. And I know I can't fight, not for awhile yet, but. The team--"

"Apparently they're better at protecting you than I am," Bruce said.

"Never. They're good backup, though."

When they got home, Dick didn't protest Bruce picking him up and carrying him inside, and Dick was pretty sure that going to the smaller tv room and getting settled together on the couch was meant to be his reward, which he was very okay with.

Even more okay was the tray with soup and toasted cheese sandwiches Alfred brought him, and the fact that Alfred didn't take more than a little cajoling before he sat down with them and they learned everything there was to know about the extinct Moa bird of New Zealand.

Dick drifted, more asleep than awake, and when it hit ten o'clock, he forced himself to wake enough to ask: "Patrol?"

"Not tonight," Bruce said, and Dick settled in to sleep again.

He woke in a cold sweat to his own room, clock glaring greenly at him to report that it was 02:36, and he shivered a little with the memory of his dreams, or just with memories, and he made his way down the hall to Bruce's room, and when he slipped under the covers there, the sheets were warm and Bruce grumbled slightly before tucking him close. "'S just a dream, now," he whispered, a little delayed. Bruce was catching up on sleep too.

"I've got you," he added, running a hand through Dick's hair. "I'm here."

"Yeah," came Dick's mumbled agreement.

### Artemis:

"You have anything this afternoon?" Barbara asked, dropping her hand. Artemis glanced down at her, considered.

"No." She'd been planning on sleeping, really, but that was hardly going to happen whether she tried or not, so she added, "You?"

"Currently, my plans are to get to know Dick's newest friend."

"I-- okay," Artemis said. She'd been expecting something of the sort, but she was still a little flummoxed but the bluntness of the request.

"Ice cream? There's a place..."

Mentally, Artemis tallied her pocket change. She and her mom had more than they used to, with Green Arrow and Batman outfitting her for her bow, (and uniforms; which her mom pretended she hadn't known about before she'd had a mentor) but still, it wasn't like she could get a proper after school job, so she had to be careful about what she splurged on.

"Sure," Artemis said. She could get a cone or something.

Barbara got herself an enormous sundae and as soon as Artemis had eaten her ice cream, she produced and extra spoon and laughed. "Not like I could possibly eat the whole thing-- or even that I should." she pinched her arm where the flesh was soft and, Artemis thought a bit jealously, feminine.

"But you're all muscles and bones and your cheeks are hungry. I bet you're still growing, right? My mom was tiny, so... so I probably will be too."

"I do archery," she said. "And gymnastics."

"Cool! I take tae kwon do on Thursdays, but it's not my best subject. So how long have you known Dick?"

"I... just this morning, really," she replied. "He's sweet though."

"He's a sarcastic, stubborn little rat. He climbs on top of stuff just so he can give you a literal jump scare, and he's smarter than any of us mere mortals could ever hope to be."

"Huh," Artemis said. "I have another friend like that."

"From Gotham North?"

"Y-yeah. Rob's... an old classmate, I guess."

Barbara's eyes narrowed slightly.

"Boyfriend?"

"No!" Artemis snapped. "I don't _have_ a boyfriend. I don't have _time_ for a boyfriend."

Barbara laughed. "Boyfriends are a terrible life choice anyway; at least my dad tries to tell me so all the time."

"How long have _you_ known Dick, anyway? And is he your boyfriend?"

Barbara laughed, eyes sparkling, a smudge of ice cream on her chin from where she'd had to hastily abort a bite.

"God, no, he's a _freshman_ , and besides, my dad would _murder me_ for even thinking about it. It's this _thing_ ; I used to have a major crush on Robin, too, when he first started fighting crime or whatever, and my dad kept threatening to send me to an all girls boarding school _underwater_."

Barbara wiped the ice cream off her face and then licked her fingers. "I met Dick right after his parents died," she said. "He stayed with us the first night, and if Dad weren't the least corrupt cop in Gotham, he probably would have stayed with us right up until the adoption went through, but as it was, Bruce had already paid his tuition to Gotham Academy, so Dad and I drove him from the children's home to the school every day.

"He kept running away; I mean, well-- maybe you get it?"

"Any place is better than the system," Artemis mumbled, caught up in the story but not wanting to let her end of the conversation drop. She was too much that weird girl already, she thought.

"And coming to my room-- he was fearless of heights, which he still totally is, and Dad would let him stay the night but made him go back the next day.

"When Bruce got the papers through-- woulda been faster if he'd been willing to game the system, but-- Wayne, you know?"

Artemis had absolutely no idea, so she nodded vaguely.

"He's basically my brother. I love him, but I'm not planning a wedding or kids or anything. So... he's open season. For you. If you're good to him." Barbara nodded firmly.

Artemis shook her head, grinning. "I thought you said he was a rat."

"He is; rotten to the core. But you like him, and not in the creepy celebutante way either."

"He was hurting," Artemis said. Barbara nodded slightly.

"Yeah; he's full of stupid, unbelievable excuses all the time too. No matter what he tells you, that kid has never walked into a door or fallen down a flight of stairs in his entire life."

Artemis nodded again. "Does he still run away?"

Barbara laughed. "No! The only nighttime visitor I get is Robin, these days."

"You... know Robin?" Artemis said.

"Sure, my dad's friends with Batman. Sorta. If Batman's around, Robin usually hangs out with me. We watch old movies, like, Humphrey Bogart and Tyrone Power old, and he likes--"

"Kettle corn, yeah," Artemis said, and Barbara smiled at her, but didn't call her on the slip.

So much for a goddamned secret identity.

"It must be nice," Barbara said after a few moments during which Artemis wondered how many more times this week she could fuck up.

"Huh?"

"Being able to protect the people you love."

Artemis barked out a laugh; "The only people I _can't_ protect are the people I love," she said. "Strangers on the street? Sure, no problem. Some dumbass freshman at the high school? Easy! But I --"

She'd been too late to help Jade, and her father had been beyond redemption since before she was born, and she couldn't stop her mom from being pushed out a window, and... last night, she'd been too late to help _Robin_ , who was the only one on the team who accepted her unequivocally.

"Hey," Barbara said. "Wherever you just went, just now, come back, okay?"

Artemis stared at her. "Okay, okay. I'm fine, I'm... traught."

Barbara raised an eyebrow. "Looked pretty _dis_ traught from my angle, but I learned a long time ago not to argue with superheroes."

Artemis had the sudden image of Barbara standing up to Batman, red hair flying and fists on her hips.

And why not, if her dad was friends with him? Barbara wasn't the sort of person to back down from anyone, not just peers.

But still, the only person Artemis had ever seen arguing with Batman and not quaking with terror was _Robin_ (even Superman got a bit shifty-eyed when going up against the Dark Knight of Gotham) and she was pretty sure that was because Robin got to see all the squishy, mentor-y bits of him that no one else got.

Or maybe it was just that Robin never got to see the darker, more awful bits that everyone else saw from him when Robin wasn't there, distracting and showing off and teasing, softening the atmosphere.

(Only, he had. He'd seen how close Batman had come to killing, last night, and a low voiced warning had been enough to pull him back.)

(She could never be that brave; if anyone had hurt her like that, she'd want them all dead in all the most painful ways she could think of.)

"If you see Robin--" the both started simultaneously,and Artemis sat back.

"Just tell him I'm waiting for the next twenty minutes of 'Prince of Foxes'," she said.

"I was going to say, make sure he's okay? I don't know if he'll talk to me, and he had... there was a rough fight, recently."

Barbara laughed. "It's like you don't know him at all," she said, tone teasing enough to soften the blow.

"I don't," Artemis said. "Not really."

### Dick:

When the alarm started going off, it startled him awake, and he realized, hey, still in Bruce's room, which should have been embarrassing, but it wasn't. He rolled over, releasing the death grip he had on the pillow at the same time, and came face-to-face with... Bruce's back.

His hair was all messed up and he didn't look like either Bruce Wayne or Batman, and Dick smiled, because he looked like sleeping late and breakfast and cartoons in the master bedroom and a lazy day without training once in a blue moon.

He looked like a dad, but Dick hadn't ever called him that, really, and he was pretty sure starting right now would freak him out.

Bruce groaned, and moved, and the alarm stopped blaring, and then he was face to face with him.

"Sleep well?" he asked.

Bruce groaned and rubbed his eyes.

"You should get up," Dick advised. "I have a doctor's note, but I don't think you do."

Bruce's lips twisted in a wry little grin, and he reached across to ruffle Dick's hair.

Dick smiled at him, and normally, he would have already been laughing and scrambling away, but he couldn't bring himself to do it. Bruce almost certainly noticed, but he didn't comment on that. Instead, he said, "I thought you were going to school come hell or high water?"

"I am," Dick said, sitting up with a great deal of effort. The cuts on his thighs and torso stung and pulled from the motion. "But I don't _have_ to, is all."

Bruce let out his little sighing laugh, and Dick almost couldn't stand it, because it felt like Bruce was trying to make up for his silence, so he waved and darted back to his room to get ready for school.

***

Artemis was waiting with Barbara at the front of the school, and Dick waved vigorously at Alfred the way he always did as the car pulled away.

"Hey, Artemis!" he said, darting up to her and grinning a lie.

He'd known from the start that Artemis would get along with Barbara; they had similar personalities, and he, personally, felt that Artemis could use a stabilizing influence in her life. (That was not, in fact, Batman talking, thank you very much. He'd come up with that on his own.)

"And here's trouble," Barbara said, laughing. Neither girl moved to hug him, which was good, because personal autonomy, but still, Barbara, at least, should know by now what he wanted on mornings like this.

Instead, he had to hold out his arms and grin, and Artemis raised an eyebrow but she pulled him close for what turned out to be an extremely nice hug. He'd never hugged Artemis before; Robin wasn't clingy enough to demand a hug from his teammates, but Dick was.

And he was pretty sure Artemis hadn't figured it out yet. If she had, she wasn't the sort to keep quiet about it, not like Barbara (who he was pretty sure had figured it out the first time she'd seen him as Robin. But Barbara was _Barbara_ , so...)

Artemis didn't let go once the hug was over either, her arm lingered around his shoulders and Barbara looked immensely pleased with herself so he sent her a glare.

"Math class, right?" Artemis asked him. "We should set out early so you don't have to show off your doctor's note when we're tardy."

"It's not showing off," Dick said defensively. "It's a real ailment. I'm truly ill. It's _proof_."

"It says a week of bedrest," Barbara said. "School is not bedrest."

"I slept the whole night last night," Dick argued. "It's awful and boring and I _hate_ enforced stillness I might _explode_ and you know it."

Artemis laughed so her whole body was moving with it, and Dick smiled even though he thought it might crack him.

He was very glad she had no idea who he was, really.

"You should come to the Spring Formal with us," Barbara said. "Doll yourself up, pretend to mingle with everyone." Dick tried not to glare at her.

"I don't know--" Artemis was very abruptly not laughing. "I have a lot of responsibilities, you know?"

"Blow 'em off! You're fifteen; have fun, live your life. Dick is!"

"Dick is ignoring doctor's orders to go to school; that's fundamentally the opposite of 'have fun, live your life,'" Artemis retorted, and her arm dropped off of his shoulders.

"It's my life; I'm exercising my free will. Ergo, living my life,” Dick protestd.

"You are utterly and completely incorrigible."

"I wonder what it would be like to be--" he froze. _'Corrigible'_ , he'd very nearly said. But if Artemis didn't know, it would be stupid to hand the info to her on a silver platter.

Especially considering two nights ago and what she'd seen; especially considering that Batman had assured him she was the only one on the team who _knew_.

"Spring formal!" he said instead, with a great deal more exuberance than he actually felt about the whole thing.

"If you guys are going together; let me tell you, it's no fun being the third wheel."

Barbara shrugged. "Bring a friend. The more normal people, the better. Do you know what the spring formal at Gotham Academy is _like?_ "

"Way to sell me on that one, Barbara," Artemis said. "I don't know--"

"Come on," Dick wheedled, even though he wasn't sure why. All of Artemis's friends were either from North Gotham or the Team, and he wasn't sure he really wanted to risk _more_ people being around him in his civilian guise.

Not this week.

"I go to this great consignment store like, once a week, because they have amazing vintage clothes. We can find you an awesome dress, I just know it," Barbara said.

Artemis shook her head, grinning a little. "I can afford a damned dress, Barbara," she said. "I just--"

"Too scared?" Dick dared, grinning and trying his best to find that place where baiting people meant laughter, not pain.

"I'm not _scared_! God, fine, okay? But I'm bringing a friend. And you'd _better_ be nice to him or I'll punch you in the face; got it?"

Math was texting Barbara and trying to figure out just what the heck she was thinking. Math was--

_You can't just do stuff like that._

and

_You like her and you don't like anybody. You're too much Bruce Wayne and not enough the circus kid who could make it half across Gotham in your pjs._

_She doesn't want to come._

_She's lonely and we can introduce her to some people. Or she can introduce us to some people. Either way, it'll be fun._

_What if she's not lonely and she brings some bruiser from North Gotham?_

_Then I get to watch you play nice with some bruiser from North Gotham. It will be hilarious._

Dick was about to snap closed his phone when two messages came through, almost simultaneously, coded for Robin.

He pressed his thumb to the screen to authenticate, and reluctantly opened the one from B first.

_Something's come up. You okay tonight?_

He quickly typed back: _I can go check on the Team, it's fine._

_I'll tell AL to look for you._

The other one was from Artemis, and he smiled again as he opened it.

_You going to be at the Cave tonight?_

His smile faltered. She wouldn't--

_I just wanna talk. Not about the other night either, promise._

Oh. Well. That would be-- could be-- probably was almost as uncomfortable. But he'd already told B, and B would worry about him if he was by himself at the Manor after a bad mission, so...

_Sure! B already told me I should drop by. You sure you don't want to talk like this?_

_And get kicked out of school? No way. TTYL_

Dick suppressed the sigh, because he didn't want to attract Artemis's attention.

He was getting in this pretty deep; he should never have let Artemis help him out yesterday. Dick Grayson couldn't afford friends. or, he supposed, more accurately, _Robin_ couldn't afford Dick Grayson to have friends.

But he was cold right now, and Artemis would hug him again after class, if he asked her to.

### Artemis:

Artemis was practically exuberant when the zeta-tube deposited her in the Cave. She had picked up a pair of designer wraparound sunglasses some girl had dropped at lunch and gotten them cleaned up, and was planning on offering them to Robin as a sop to his stupid secret identity (not that she was any better, really, with regards to all of that,) in order to convince him to go to the formal with her.

He needed something properly teenager-y in his life, she thought, and she was pretty sure that Barbara had meant for her to go to him when she'd suggested it, and it wasn't like Artemis wasn't familiar with the friend code when it came to these things.

If she was just a tiny bit jealous of Barbara knowing Robin already, and apparently being friendly if not outright friends with him, she was adult enough to hide it.

Robin _should_ have friends outside the team. She was acquiring some, and so far it had worked out okay.

Plus, after the other night, and all of that _crap_ , she figured he could stand a little bit of normalcy.

She made a beeline for the TV room where, sure enough, Robin was curled in the very corner of the sofa with Kaldur just out of touching distance and a black and white film playing out its tragic romance on the screen.

"Hey, Artemis," Robin said. "It's Sunset Boulevard; pretty amazing. You want to watch?" He patted the empty space next to him in invitation.

Artemis fumbled the sunglasses a little and stared at the couch. "I--"

"It's almost over," Robin said.

"There's plenty of room," Kaldur offered along with a tiny, reassuring smile. Artemis couldn't help the reflex to smile back, 'hey, no prob, everything's five-by-five over here.' Joining them on the couch, however...

After way too long a moment of indecision, she settled on the couch, arm brushing up against Kaldur's, Robin's feet poking into her thigh. She cast a sidelong glance at Robin, but he seemed okay with the contact.

He _had_ invited it, after all.

Once the credits were rolling and she was mostly over her complete perplexity over _that ending_ (seriously? What the actual hell was that about?) she offered the glasses to Robin.

"Here; I figure the lenses are big enough you can put even more of your top-secret Robin tech inside them, and I wanted to ask you something."

Robin didn't take the glasses, so she leaned forward and set them on the coffee table.

"Those are expensive," he said mildly.

"I found them at school. The girl who lost them doesn't deserve 'em, trust me. None of them do," she shuddered a little.

"I was under the impression that you went to an elite school, on a special consideration?" Kaldur inquired as mildly as he did everything.

"Yeah, but if you've got enough money, you get in anyway, and those people have _no_ consideration, believe me."

Kaldur snorted, just slightly, just enough to betray his amusement.

"Taking lessons from me in wordplay, A? Because that's probably not gonna serve you well. You know, in life."

"Oh, whatever. Come to the spring formal with me? That's why I picked up the stupid glasses. You'd rock them, you know? And my friends said I should invite someone."

Robin sighed dramatically. "You really think B would let me go to a dance? At a high school?"

"A super classy elitest pig high school," Artemis elaborated. "And I don't know, I don't know anything about you two except that he obviously actually has a heart around you which is frankly more terrifying 'Dark Knight without emotions' schtick he pulls on.... on... the Gotham underworld."

"What about Kaldur?" Robin asked, glancing beyond her to where Kaldur was sitting, still and peaceful despite the fact that he must be feeling like a third wheel. "Have you ever been to a high school dance?"

"No," Kaldur said. "Not even a super classy elitest pig high school dance."

The irony in his tone made her giggle, and then she had to press both hands to her face because Artemis? Artemis did not _giggle_.

"However, I am led to understand that such offers are generally romantic in nature, and I do not wish to... interfere."

"You would _not_ interfere. I can take both of you! Well, I think I can; I'd have to text one of my dateless friends to see if she minded scoring you a ticket."

"How many friends do you have, there?" Robin asked. "I mean, considering that it's full of super classy elitest pigs, and you're none of those things."

"Hey!" Artemis said. "One: I have two friends. Two: I am _so_ super classy. I am utterly lousy with class."

"Ugh, gross, get away from me, cooties are catching!"

Robin shoved her, and she dove in for the kill, but somehow he had unfolded himself and sprung away from her, and he was cackling gleefully as he went for the tv stand and then the light fixtures in the ceiling.

"I am _not_ playing keepaway with you, Rob," she said, trying to hide the relief she felt at his characteristic playfulness making its return.

"I will," Kaldur offered, and then he was standing on the back of the couch just as Robin came within reach, and he caught him against his chest and they both fell in a heap on the cushions, Kaldur cradling him carefully, obviously aware of his injuries.

Artemis felt the grin on her face acutely, despite the images of Robin’s injuries stark against his skin, but somehow couldn't bring herself to push it down, to be Artemis the superhero and not Artemis the high school student.

"So, come on. Are you coming?" she forced herself to ask.

"I dunno, is that a romantic overture?"

Artemis considered for a half a second, then shook her head. "No, actually." Was it time? She would have had to let him know eventually if he'd come. But still, letting him know she was from Gotham was one step closer to him knowing Everything Else too.

So. "My friend Barbara Gordon has a huge crush on you and I figured it might be nice for you guys to meet in a social situation, not in a 'Batman must speak with the Police Commissioner because Gotham is in Danger' situation. It was going to be... a favor."

"Wow," Robin said, quiet and gentle. "Not expecting that, A. Compelling as that argument is, no. I really can't-- B wouldn't say anything, but he'd be all frowning and looming and the last thing you _or_ Barbara needs is the Bat crashing your prom."

"Oh," Artemis said, feeling like an idiot. "Right. No, that would be... awkward. But he, I thought he... approved of me? Or didn't hate me, at least."

Robin grinned at her, bright and sweet and _real_. "Of course he approves of you! You're on the Team, and you watch my back, and you're very skilled and very convicted. And _I_ like you, and no one will ever believe it, but my opinion counts for a lot."

"Anyone who doubts this," Kaldur interjected, shifting around so that Robin was no longer perched on his stomach but was, in fact, safely curled in his lap, "Has not seen the two of you interact."

"Right, okay. Keep the dumb glasses, though. I think you'll appreciate them more than some chick who leaves them in the cafeteria. They might be, like, out of style or something though. I don't know."

Robin stared at her, then raised an eyebrow, unsubtly jerking his shoulder to indicate Kaldur, who still had him loosely trapped in a hug.

Good. The boy probably needed a good long cuddle session.

Hell, they all probably did.

Robin coughed.

Artemis raised an eyebrow of her own.

Finally, he sighed and said; "Kaldur, would you like to go to the dance with Artemis?"

Kaldur frowned contemplatively, then winked at her. Robin couldn't see it.

"I don't know, Robin. Is that a romantic overture?"

Robin spluttered, and squirmed free, and flew from the tv room voicing dire warnings and taunts all the while. (His progress slowed drastically the second he was out of their view, and Kaldur shared a concerned glance with her.)

"If you would not mind, I feel that such an event might be... educational for me to attend."

"What?" Artemis said. Then, because she hadn't really thought _Kaldur_ of all people would like to go, she nodded abruptly. "God, yes. Come. It would be really embarrassing to show up alone after I told my friends that I was going to bring someone. Please?"

Kaldur smiled. "I will... consult Robin and Wally as to appropriate attire."

He was staring at the doorway Robin had disappeared through with something like concern and confusion mingling on his features. "Yeah," Artemis said. "Do that."

### Dick:

Dick could not sleep. B wouldn't be home for an indefinite time period, and he'd probably look in on Robin at the Cave before heading back to the Manor, unless the problem he was solving was in Gotham, which seemed unlikely.

He'd totally eavesdropped on Bruce redistributing his Gotham responsibilities all this morning, and that meant--

That meant he should stay in his bed in his room in the Cave with the Team and not go home to stare at the ceiling instead.

Artemis had gone home, waiting for Kaldur to give her a reassuring nod after the session with Robin and Wally where they discussed formal attire and cover stories.

Exchange student was always a classic, Robin had thought, but Wally had dwelt on passing as a surfacer for a good long time.

(He knew Kaldur was reassuring her about _him_. He was trying really hard not to think of that. Or of the pain in his ribs and on his thighs and. The pain.)

There were a lot of things he wasn't thinking about.

So, after a good hour of ceiling staring, he rolled over and fumbled on his sunglasses (the ones he'd already modified, not Artemis's peace offering, though he liked that pair a lot. They had rhinestones on the arms and covered up half his face. Soon they would be _upgraded_ , and in the terrifying cyberman way, too, not the benign iPad way.)

He'd meant to go to the tv room, to curl back up in his corner of the couch and watch Metropolis or something equally epic, but he couldn't bring himself to do much more than hover in his own doorway. What kind of Boy Wonder was he if he could do nothing but hover in indecision in his own doorway?

He just--

He couldn't be alone. He could barely stand to be around people, but he couldn't be alone.

He knocked on Kaldur's door, because Kaldur was good, and he was strong, and he wasn't Batman, but he was still--

Kaldur opened it right away, rubbing sleep from his eyes and smiling just a little at Robin, and Robin flushed hot and embarrassed.

"Sorry, I didn't mean--"

"Come to bed, Robin. If you cannot sleep, simply lay down. I will wake you if there is need."

Robin shook his head, and Kaldur nodded, stepping back into the dark quiet of his own room; a lot more lived in and personable than Robin's, and Robin followed him. When the door shut, the room was pitch black, so dark his glasses swapped to night vision, so dark he felt comfortable sliding them off and shutting his eyes.

"I promise not to peek," Kaldur said, and Dick nodded, feeling bare and vulnerable and not at all like laughing.

Kaldur pushed him into his bed, and it was warm from his body heat and huge and far too soft, and when Kaldur wrapped around him like he had after he'd caught him on the couch earlier, after he'd had to hurt Artemis's feelings, he drifted immediately to sleep.

***

Only to awaken to the alarm klaxon.

"What--?" he mumbled, pulling himself out of sleep as best he could and groping for his glasses and for Kaldur's presence, finding one but not the other.

The door opened, and Batman loomed in the hall, his form as unmistakable as ever.

"Robin is _missing_ ," Batman growled. "He is supposed to be recovering from severe injuries, and he is _missing_."

"'m fine!" he protested, shoving his glasses on willy nilly and sitting straight up.

Batman stared at him, the cowl preventing any sign of relief from showing.

"He is, sir," Kaldur said, stepping back so Batman could pull Robin in close, check him over for... new damage, he supposed.

"Why weren't you in your own bed?" Batman demanded. "Did you stay up late watching one of your movies? Why didn't Kaldur put you in your own room?"

Robin couldn't tell him, couldn't _explain._ He... how was he supposed to explain to his mentor that he'd been too afraid to sleep alone? He could only just barely admit it to himself.

M'gann and Superboy were in the corridor now, watching with wide eyes, and Robin suppressed everything he was feeling in that moment in order to straighten his shoulders and look Batman in the eye and say; "It was my mistake." To say: "It won't happen again."

Batman immediately stood down, closing the distance between them to drop his hands on Robin's shoulders, pulling him in tight and close after a moment. "Don't tell me that," he said, and it wasn't a Batman growl.

"What do you want me to tell you?" he asked, and he could hardly believe that his Team, his _friends_ , were still standing there, watching this. Kaldur made sense, because it was his room, but--

"The truth, Robin. Always the truth."

Robin knew that was his cue, even opened his mouth to acknowledge it, but he couldn't.

"Do you want to come home, or would you rather stay here? Aqualad doesn't mind." The last came out more as an order than as reassurance, but still, Kaldur murmured a gentle agreement.

Robin wanted to know, desperately, if going home meant returning to an empty bed in his own bedroom.

Wondered if B would start to question his capability as Robin if he asked the question.

B wrapped his cape around his shoulders, and it was then that Robin realized he was shaking all over, like a kid he'd just saved from a mugging might.

Like he was scared.

It was hard, once he realized that, once he figured out that his act was fooling precisely no one so long as his body language was acting up, to keep the sob building up in his throat from escaping, but he did.

"I--"

He couldn't.

"Let go of me!" he snapped, and B did, just like that, taking a full step back for good measure, and Robin used that opportunity to slip past him and out the door and through the zeta-tubes to Gotham.

***

Artemis's fire escape was locked, but it wasn't that hard of a climb, not even with his injuries slowing him down, so it was only a few moments after finding her building that he was tapping on her window.

The two twin beds, one made up perfectly, the other with a now-awake girl, let him know that Artemis wasn't a stranger to pretending things would be fine to oneself. He could handle that. He could _definitely_ handle that.

"You know SB snores?" he asked her once she'd offered him her hand and helped him inside. "Serious racket. Can I crash with you?"

Artemis glanced at the untouched bed, then back at him.

"Yes," she said, and she said it firmly and perfectly. He glanced at it too, then back to hers.

"I mean, I'm small, and I don't kick in my sleep. You probably won't even notice me in your bed."

The relief the wrote itself across her face was reassuring, because at least, everything else aside, he could still read the people around him.

He hadn't put on anything over his pajamas except a domino he'd snagged from the training room, so he slid into her bed, and it smelled clean and nice, even though it wasn't as warm as Kaldur's had been. She hesitated only a second before joining him and rolling over so they were back to back.

"Go to sleep," she said, and it had the air of a ritual to it. "I'll keep an eye out."

Robin mumbled agreement, his exhaustion working against him.

"Hey, Rob?" Artemis asked, just as sleep was starting to gain firm hold of him. "How old _are_ you?"

"Fourteen," he replied.

"'s what I thought," she whispered back.

***

Neither of them noticed Batman looming at the window while they slept.

[](http://miki-moo.livejournal.com/42328.html)

### Artemis:

"Artemis, wake up! You're going to be late!" was usually enough warning that her mom was about to try and come into her room, because now that her mom knew about the crime-fighting thing, well, there wasn't anything she needed to hide.

This morning, however, it wasn't nearly enough. Robin stirred at the noise, but it wasn't anywhere near the alertness she expected from him, and even normal Robin-alertness levels wouldn't have been enough to save him from being found out by her mother.

Her mother opened the door.

Artemis opened her mouth to say something, and her mom's eyebrow crept up.

"Good morning," she said. Robin mumbled something in response and tugged on Artemis's arm.

"Hi mom," Artemis said. Well, it was looking like it didn't matter that she hadn’t convinced Robin to come to the formal with her because her mother was probably about to murder them.

"Artemis, I don't remember meeting your friend last night," she said, and if Artemis didn't know better, she'd say her mom was amused.

Artemis climbed out of the bed and stared at Robin. "He came in the window," she said. He was wearing pajamas, and she could see the bruises on his pale arms, and the worse injuries on his torso where the top had ridden up.

"He looks like he could use the rest," her mom said mildly.

"I'm pretty sure he could, but I think--" she didn't get to finish the thought, because Robin chose that moment to sit bolt upright and fix a domino-enhanced stare on her.

"Artemis?" he asked, and his voice was sweet and vulnerable in a way that made her stomach twist up with guilt. If she hadn't decided to go to the armory first...

"Robin, this is my mom," Artemis replied.

Robin grinned, bright and silly and utterly _wrong_ after that moment of true emotion. Artemis felt a frown forming above her eyes.

"Hello, Paula," Robin said, not even pretending like he didn't know her, the little shit. Artemis couldn't help the tiny smile she gave him for that, but then, she _liked_ Robin, and she liked the fact that he was a little creepy.

She was pretty sure he was half-a-step away from being a villain, and that made her feel at home, because she was pretty sure _she_ was half-a-step away from being a villain.

"Robin, I believe? I assume there is a good reason for you to be in my daughter's bed without my knowledge?"

Robin ducked his head and shook it, blushing faintly.

"Hm," her mom said. "Well, come eat breakfast while I call Batman to come collect you.'

Artemis stared at him.

He stared back.

"You can borrow some clothes," she offered. They'd be too big, and women's clothes, but his pajamas weren't exactly inspiring confidence. Also, now that it wasn't ass-o'clock in the morning, she could see where he'd torn them at the knees, along with smudges of dirt all up his right side.

"Yeah," Robin said. "And a shower?"

Artemis stared at him. "Sure, I guess."

Artemis used the extra three minutes he took getting ready to tell her mom in quick, non-descriptive words what was going on with Robin, even though she wasn't sure it was really _right_ to tell people, but this was her mom and her mom always knew what to do. 

Her mom went hard and cold the way she only ever had on Artemis's behalf, and then she called Batman.

Picturing her mom standing up to Batman, unlike the images she'd had of Barbara, filled her with a vague sense of fear and an upset stomach.

Robin came down in her clothes and a pair of borrowed sunglasses. They had pink frames with yellow smiley faces at each corner, and Artemis knew he was trying to distract her.

Robin's defense mechanisms worked a hell of a lot less on her now that she knew where to look for them.

"Breakfast is mandatory," her mom said, and Robin nodded and settled at the third place setting.

Her mom believed firmly in breakfast, and usually made at least oatmeal and eggs with toast. This morning she had added sausage and a basket of fruit, and Artemis tried not to think about how much the meat had cost or whether Robin liked oatmeal or eggs or fruit.

But really, who didn't like oranges?

"So, Robin, Batman said you have to go to school?" her mom prompted.

"Yeah, but I'm not allowed to compromise my secret identity so I can't talk about it."

Her mom snorted, and her eyes stayed cold and unforgiving.

"Compromise your identity? You're only twelve!"

"Fourteen," Robin corrected, a little snappishly himself. "And it's not just my identity; it's Batman's."

Her mom snorted again, shaking her head with disgust. "I know we can't stop you, but to encourage you? And unless there have been other Robins--"

"Never!" Robin said, loud and fierce.

"You've been fighting crime since you were a little boy."

"Artemis has been _committing_ crime since she was a little girl," Robin said, smile bright and dagger-like.

"Yes, well, that means I know how wrong it is to involve children in this life."

Robin very calmly took a bite of oatmeal. He turned to Artemis, swallowed.

"So did Kaldur agree to go to the formal with you?" he asked innocently.

Her mom smiled a little to herself; Artemis had already informed her about that, so Robin’s little ploy failed.

"Yeah, since you so gracefully bailed. What's with that? You can have fun; I know you can. I've seen it."

Robin looked away. "I do have fun."

The window to the fire escape opened, and Artemis looked up to see Batman in full uniform, looming in her kitchen.

"Sit," her mom said. "He's not done eating."

Much to her surprise, Batman sat down.

"You want oatmeal?" Artemis asked, because she was polite and totally not scared of Batman.

She actually wasn't, not with the way his gaze stayed fastened to Robin the whole time; not with the memory of his expression once those thugs in the warehouse were out and he had Robin, naked and bleeding and silently crying gathered up against his chest, wrapped in his cape.

She realized that she'd probably never be scared of Batman again.

He probably already knew that though.

"Did you sleep well?" Batman asked, and Robin startled. B doctored his bowl of oatmeal with butter and brown sugar and took a bite, and still Robin didn't answer.

"Yeah, I was just gonna hang out, but, you know. It was late."

"Kaldur was worried. He thought he'd done something to anger you."

Robin looked down at his plate, still mostly full, and pushed his eggs around a little.

"Yeah?"

"You need to sleep, Robin."

Robin looked up at Batman. Artemis wondered what they could see in each other's expressions, since they were both masked and... well... _them_ , but they must have seen something because they both looked away at the same moment.

That, Artemis thought, was what a partnership looked like.

She wondered if Batman might even love Robin, even though there were parts of her, Gotham Crime Alley parts, Sportsmaster's daughter parts, that said Batman couldn't feel at all, that he had nothing in his heart but justice and violence.

If he did love, he loved Robin, she decided. And if he didn't, he tried to.

Her mom didn't have to try, so that was different, and she was a little bit jealous. What must it be like if someone didn't have the capacity for positive emotions, but they tried to love you anyway?

That must be special.

No wonder Robin had balked at the idea of there being more than one.

### Kaldur:

Kaldur was fairly certain that they need not shop in Gotham for the event, but Wally had been strangely insistent, so he had ceded the point as gracefully as he could. He felt that formal wear would be as easily acquired anywhere on the surface world, and Wally had no compelling arguments to support his own preference, but Wally was forceful and uncharacteristically intent.

"So," Wally said, once they'd entered the mall. It was just outside of Gotham, and full of other teenagers and the occasional adult. "You know who Artemis is?"

Kaldur stared at him. "No," he said finally. "Our two fully human team members have not only a right but a _reason_ for their privacy."

Wally jerked his shoulder in a quick shrug. "I meant because you're going to prom with her."

"She called it a spring formal," Kaldur said.

Wally snorted. "Come on; it's a little late in the game, but we should be able to get you a tux _somewhere_."

The whole time Kaldur was trying on shirts and coats and slacks and shoes, Wally kept pestering about Artemis's identity, until he caught him up against the wall of a dressing room stall and glared.

"Even if our teammate had entrusted that information to me, I would not violate that trust by disclosing the information to _anyone_ ," he enjoined sternly.

Wally sighed heavily and broke free of his grasp, straightening his clothes.

"You know of Robin's identity," Kaldur pointed out, stacking the clothing neatly on one arm and making his way out of the dressing room.

"I wouldn't tell--"

"Exactly. It is not my secret to tell, even if I did know it."

"You will know it," Wally pointed out. "You're going to her _school_. Mega civilian event, and no masks in sight."

A salesman came out of the racks upon racks of clothing and took Kaldur's burden with a scowl, which Kaldur ignored. The man's expression eased, somewhat, once Kaldur produced the card Batman had given him for the occasion. (Kaldur hadn't requested it, but when Batman had heard _why_ he was politely requesting access to Gotham, he'd simply pressed the card into Kaldur's hands and told him to go wild with a sharply sardonic turn to his lips.)

Then, they had their clothing and they were done, but when Kaldur tried to steer them toward the exit, Wally stopped him. "C'mon, man, I'm starving! And dinner's on the Bat; we can't pass that up, can we?"

Allowing Wally's blood-sugar to drop _would_ prove to be problematic, he realized.

And he'd never had food at a mall before, which M'gann insisted was an important rite for all human-- all _surfacer_ teenagers.

"Fine," Kaldur agreed, smiling at Wally and handing him the card. "I daresay you should run ahead and pick me something. I'll be there in a moment."

When Wally was gone, faster than Kaldur could blink, he allowed himself to be overwhelmed by the mall. It was all lights and people and noise, pressing in on him until he wanted nothing more than to drop to his knees, shut his eyes, and cover his ears.

He didn't allow himself that indulgence, however, because he was his King's representative on the surface world, and he would not bring shame to his mentor.

"Kaldur?" A familiar voice came out from the hum of the rest, and then Artemis was touching his back, her face strikingly familiar despite the lack of mask. "Hey, you don't look so good," she added, leaning into his side and pulling his arm around her shoulders. He let her take his weight gratefully and smiled wanly at her.

"There is so... much," he told her. It did not reassure as intended, for her frown grew deeper and her eyes went sharp the way they always did when he set her a problem to tackle.

"Maybe the formal isn't such a great idea,"she said.

A red-haired woman appeared from the crowd then. "Artemis!" she called, rushing up to them. "You disappeared! Weren't we going to go into that store?"

"Yeah," Artemis said. "We were. We _are_. But I saw... my friend here. He needs water."

The red-haired girl produced a bottle from her purse and handed it to Kaldur. He focused intently on opening the screw-lid, then on taking a sip.

He felt instantly better. Artemis quirked a grin at him. "The A/C in these places makes them dry and awful. Are you here by yourself?"

Kaldur shook his head. "Wally was hungry."

"He'll find us in a few, then. Come on, we're about to go into a store. Less people."

Kaldur let her guide him into the apparel store. Where the one Wally had chosen was for menswear, this one held women's clothing. He was struck by the wider variety, the broader allowance for color. It was much more like home than the rest of the mall had been.

Artemis settled him in a chair near to the dressing room cubicles, and, leaving him with the water bottle and her bag, she disappeared.

His phone chimed.

_B says you and W are at the mall. Want me to join you?_

_A is here as well. And a red-haired friend._ Kaldur replied. _But your company would not go amiss._

He knew Robin would decline, knowing that, and he frowned, waiting for the answer. Artemis was by far closer to Robin than the rest of the team, no matter what Wally might think; they simply had the most in common.

Still, Robin had been _off_ yesterday, and had been doing his best to keep from getting too involved, inter-personally, with the team.

_Yeah, thanks for the heads up; I'll give it a miss for now. Sparring after?_

_B says you're on bed-rest_

_Hah! Ok, catch you another time <3_

Artemis and her friend came back into view, so he locked his phone and stood, silently offering to help them with the masses of cloth and lace they were carrying.

The red-haired girl snorted, and Artemis turned to the attendant and said, sweetly, "Six each."

The attendant silently handed her two plastic number "6"s, and the women disappeared into their cubicles.

"So," the attendant asked, smiling politely. "Which one's yours? Because while that red-head is _hot_ , I don't like poaching."

It took Kaldur a moment to parse her meaning, and another to decide on a response. "Artemis," he said. "Not the red-head."

"What's her name?"

Kaldur decided to guess, because he already _felt_ out of place, and because he had a reasonable suspicion as to her identity. "Barbara," he replied, and the woman smiled.

"Way to help a sister out. You know what kind of movies she likes?"

He shook his head. "She is Artemis's friend, not mine."

The woman shrugged. "That's cool. She have a date for prom?"

"Yes!" Barbara called from her cubicle. "Sorry! But I'm free _next_ weekend!"

Kaldur stifled his smile in his hand, and was glad he had when Artemis came out in the first dress and twirled.

"I have no arm mobility," Artemis complained. Barbara peeked out of her cubicle to hand Artemis a different dress.

"Try that one?" she suggested, her tone one of infinite patience. Kaldur coughed into his hand.

"How many stores have you guys been to?" Wally asked, appearing from nowhere.

"Like eighteen. Artemis has _standards_."

"I have an idea," the attendant said. "You have a budget?"

"Nope!" Artemis said gleefully. 

She brandished a card and the attendant laughed. "Guess not. Really?"

"Yup," Artemis said.

Barbara snickered.

"What's going on?" Wally demanded.

"Rob crashed at my place last night and his dad ate all our food, so Rob slipped this in my bag. At first I was pissed, but then Barbara pointed out-- dresses!"

Kaldur caught the plastic and stared at it. He tried to figure out conversion rates, but he hadn't actually paid attention when buying his own clothing. "Is this a lot?"

"Hoo, yeah," Artemis said.

"Not... really," Barbara replied. She shrugged. "It's less than _my_ budget. But I have a part time job."

"So does Artemis," Wally defended.

"Artemis volunteers," Barbara said, casting a significant look at the attendant. "I get paid."

"Anyway!" the attendant said. "I'll be right back."

When she returned, she had an armful of silk that was the exact sea-storm shade of gray as Artemis's eyes, and she was grinning with delight. Artemis took the dress from her with a wary glance around at them before disappearing into the cubicle.

A muttered "Fine, you win!" was heard, and both Barbara and the attendant crowded into the cubicle with her.

When they all finally emerged, Artemis was back in her civilian clothes and Wally was already protesting.

"You'll get to see me at the spring formal," she chided. When Wally pointed out he wouldn't be there, she just laughed.

Barbara was very unsubtle about scribbling her phone number on the receipt and handing it to the attendant, and then the emerged into the clamor of the mall again.

This time, though, he had a buffer of companionship, a bottle of water, and room to breathe.

### Artemis:

“Close your eyes, _sister_ ,” Jade told her, and Artemis eyed the array of brushes in her sister’s hands with a great deal of suspicion.

“Why?” she demanded as her mother tutted over the curling iron.

“Now, Artemis,” he mother said gently. She’d taken Jade’s appearance the night of the dance in stride and was doing her best to keep tensions from rising more than necessary.

“Because otherwise I’m going to put the eyeshadow _in_ your eyes, not one the lids. Now close them!”

Artemis sent her sister a death glare and then shut them, flinching a little at the first brush against her lid, and then settling into the application. “Open and look up,” Jade said after a moment. Artemis did, blinking in response to the eyeliner pencil coming that close. “Do you ever wear makeup?” Jade demanded, smirking at her.

“No,” Artemis said, smiling sweetly. “I’m too busy _fighting_ crime.”

“Maybe you should change sides, sweet sister,” Jade said with an equally sweet smile. “It’s more fun on my end.”

Artemis could feel the way her mother froze, her hands suddenly still against her scalp.

“No thanks,” Artemis spat in disgust. “I’m happy where I am, thank you _very_ much.”

“How is your friend,” their mom asked. “Robin? Is he doing better?”

Jade froze then, or maybe it was Cheshire. “Robin was hurt?” she demanded fiercely.

Artemis shook her head. “He’s _fine_ , mom.” Their mom tugged sharply on a strand of Artemis’s hair. “Perhaps your sister has advice for you.”

“Advice? I’m not _telling_ her!”

“And it’s not as if I care what happens to the little brat anyway,” Jade snapped, but her brows were furrowed with something like concern.

Great, Artemis thought. Just _great_. 

“You can tell me after,” Jade promised, with that sharing-secrets tone she’d always reserved for Artemis, and Artemis blinked her eyes closed again, a childish response, hoping that Jade wouldn’t be able to read the relief and longing she suddenly felt.

“I can’t,” Artemis whispered after a moment. “It’s not something I should tell anyone, and you’re…”

“Cheshire,” Jade agreed, and her lips were twisted in a little smile. “You do know, though, that if it were your secret…” she trailed off, and Artemis nodded sharply, causing her mother to snap out her name as a rebuke.

Cheshire smiled.

***

Three things Artemis hadn’t expected: Jade showing up to help her get ready. Kaldur showing up to take her across town in what she really hoped was a borrowed car. Her father showing up for pictures.

“Kaldur!” Artemis exclaimed when she opened the door. He handed her a corsage, and she struggled to get the extravagant piece around her wrist one-handed. It didn’t help that Jade took advantage of her distraction to hike up her skirts to conceal yet another knife on her person.

“Jade, it’s fine! I’m not going to prom at Gotham North, for pete’s sake,” she said, knowing that she sounded childish.

Kaldur smiled at her, and that was when she realized that he was wearing formalwear. She’d never really seen him out of costume, and he looked really, really nice. Jade snickered, and Artemis would have shoved her, but she was still trying to get the corsage on correctly, and Jade had an hand on her thigh and a knife between her teeth.

“Here,” Kaldur said, deftly catching her hand and flipping it over so he could fasten it correctly.

“Mama,” Jade called from under Artemis’s dress. “Hand me my sais, I think I found a good spot to conceal them in this tulle.”

“Oh for-- you do realize I’m not going to be going into combat at the spring formal, right?” Artemis demanded. Kaldur’s fingers brushed the sensitive skin on the underside of her wrist as he released her now properly corsaged wrist, and she shivered. With the bracers from her bow, she’d never had the opportunity to be touched there by any of the team, even though they were, by and large, always in each other’s personal space.

Kaldur’s smile turned brighter. “At least if we do, you will be well equipped for it. Hello, Artemis’s family. I am Kaldur’ahm,” he said, pressing his fist to his heart and bowing what Artemis figured was a pretty respectful bow because she’d only seen him dip that low for Batman.

“Hello, Kaldur’ahm,” Jade said, her voice pitched higher than normal, and much higher than Cheshire’s. “We’re Artemis’s family.”

Artemis winced.

Kaldur laughed. “Indeed; thank you for allowing me into your home. I swear to you, your trust will not be betrayed.”

Artemis glanced over at her mother just in time to get the impression that her mom was suitably charmed by Kaldur’s… Kaldur-ness, and to be blinded by the flash of her camera going off.

“Mom!” she said, groaning. Jade was still fussing with the concealed knives, half-in and half-out of her dress. Kaldur laughed again, harder.

“That is a beautiful arrangement,” her mom said, stepping closer to inspect the corsage. “I thought Artemis had only just invited you.”

“She did.”

“But it’s such short notice!” Her mother exclaimed. “There should have been none left!”

“The Black Canary brought it for me,” Kaldur said. “I had not even known it was a tradition until she arrived with it.” He rubbed the back of his neck. “Is it not appropriate?”

Jade moved smoothly so she could get a good look at the corsage, and whistled low and long. “Those rich kids will all be jealous of you, baby sister.”

Artemis caught Kaldur’s confused, slightly frightened look, and made sure her own face mirrored it. This stuff was totally out of her league. She should have told Barbara no.

The door opened again, and Kaldur whirled like a man at the edge of battle to face the new threat, and Sportsmaster walked in to her apartment.

“Dad,” she hissed. Jade immediately interposed herself between Artemis and their father. Her dad ignored their defensive postures, (though Kaldur did not, staying alert and on guard.)

“Hey, baby girl,” her dad said, smiling crookedly at her. “I got you something. Figure it was supposed to be for your sweet sixteen, but, I was, you know, kind of busy, and…”

Artemis had spent her sixteenth birthday stalking a group of weapons dealers on the docks. Sportsmaster had spent her sixteenth birthday smuggling weapons into the city via ocean.

He thrust a box at her, and Artemis opened it. 

Inside was a necklace, silver, with a pendant of a running stag framed by a crescent moon.

“Subtle, dad,” she said.

“Hey,” he protested. “I didn’t even steal you something with diamonds!”

“For my sixteenth birthday, all I got was a promise ring,” Jade said dryly.

“And it didn’t even work,” her dad added, his lips twisted. “Can I?” he asked, taking the necklace from its box and gesturing at her neck. It was strange for him to ask, because her dad wasn’t the sort of guy who asked for things, and because he wasn’t really asking if he could put the necklace on her. He want to know if he could step closer, stand behind her. He wanted to know if she was okay being vulnerable in front of him.

But she wasn’t vulnerable; she had Kaldur and Jade and a half-dozen knives; and she had a couple of years of distance between herself and the childhood he had ruled. She nodded, turned her back.

Kaldur held her gaze, silently asking, even without their mindlink, if she was okay, if this was something that needed to be taken care of. She didn’t blink, not even when her dad’s fingers caught painfully at the hair at the base of her neck.

“So,” he dad said, stepping back, stepping around so she could see him again. “It’s nice to finally meet you Aq--ah…” Artemis flinched, and she could feel Jade wishing as fervently as she was that Kaldur wouldn’t hear the rest of that word, the rest of the name _Aqualad_ , as clearly as they had.

“Kaldur’ahm,” Kaldur said. Artemis breathed slightly easier.

“Picture time!” Her mother announced, and Artemis groaned.

### Dick:

Alfred stood in the doorway to the bathroom, holding Dick’s suit for him, watching completely without comment as Dick tried to get his ribs wrapped up so as not to be in too much pain at the dance. Finally, Dick huffed and took the perfectly pressed suit from Alfred’s hands and hung it on the hook at the back of the door. “Help me,” he said, tossing the bandaging at Alfred and putting his hands up and out of the way.

Alfred snorted. “I’m _quite_ sure this is not what Dr. Thompkins meant when she put you on bed rest.”

“It’s way too late, Alfie, I’m committed.”

“I’m sure, Master Richard,” Alfred said dryly, and then hands started wrapping his torso, only they weren’t Alfred’s.

“Hey B!” Dick said brightly. “I thought you had… stuff.” Stuff was code for League business when they were upstairs. Even Alfred had started using that shorthand. Dick was kind of overly pleased with that and smiled smugly every time Alfred said it.

“I do have ‘stuff’,” Bruce said, the subtle emphasis on that word eking a grin from Dick. He could see it in the mirror though, and it looked sickly and wrong. “But you’re going to your very first school dance,” he added. “I can be forgiven for being late.”

“So what are you going to actually tell them?”

“Killer Croc,” Bruce said decisively, and Dick tried to laugh, he really did, but it came out the way it had been for the past couple of days, and he knew it was wrong from the way Bruce ever-so-gently gathered him into a hug.

Bruce didn’t really release him to finish the wrap job, but he did gently shift him away to start getting him dressed, which was just as well, because the doorbell rang at that moment, and Alfred silently left them alone.

“Turn around,” Bruce said. “I can’t tie your tie looking at it.”

“B, I can tie my own tie,” Dick protested.

“I know you can,” Bruce replied, gripping Dick’s shoulder tightly and then lining up the silk with the edges of his collar. “But today we’re pretending.”

Dick caught Bruce’s eyes… his _dad’s_ eyes in the mirror and thought _we’re always playing pretend though, aren’t we?_ The flash of sorrow he received back meant _message understood_.

“Hey, thanks,” Dick said, and he hesitated a breath before continuing. “Dad. I really appreciate it. You’ve got loads more practice than me, anyway. It always looks better when you tie it.”

“And don’t worry, Mr. Wayne,” Barbara said from the doorway. “I’m pretty good at fixing it when he fidgets it loose.”

Dick yelped. “Babs! I’m not wearing _pants!_ ”

“Nothing I ain’t seen before,” Barbara said.

“She’s right,” Commissioner Gordon agreed. “Hello Bruce, Dick. I thought I’d make sure Dick remembered his invitation; I’ve met the two of you.”

“Couldn’t possibly forget!” Dick said shrilly. He was all-too aware of the incriminating marks still visible on his thighs. “But… privacy!” he added. Bruce, without moving, snagged the lightweight wool slacks and kept his body between the doorway and Dick while he scrambled to get them on.

“I’ve known you since you were eight,” Barbara pointed out. “I’ve seen you naked like fifty times.”

“Babs, our dads are right here!” Dick said, feigning a scandalized tone to cover up the oddly overwhelming fear he felt at having either of them see _those_ marks and bruises.

“We’ve seen you naked before too,” Bruce intoned. “We’re _dads_.” He had a weird edge to his tone that completely washed out the usual self-conscious pleasure he expressed when Dick called him his dad.

“I’ll grab your belt,” Barbara said, and she darted back into his bedroom proper, and Dick spent a few moments getting his shirt tucked in properly before he followed her. Commissioner Gordon stayed behind, and they shut the door almost all the way. Dick sighed, but then, he should have guessed. B and the Commissioner were actually physically incapable of doing anything but discussing business with each other. Alfred had confirmed it.

“I got you the kind of corsage that pins to your dress,” Dick said. “I hope that’s okay. I didn’t think you’d want to fuss with one of those weird cascading ones even though Bruce insists it’s the ‘Wayne Way.’ I’m pretty sure he just wanted to laugh at me while I tried to give it to you.”

“Dick, you didn’t have to get me a corsage.”

“To be honest, you’re lucky you’re not getting like, jewelry and a helicopter ride,” he said, jerking a thumb over his shoulder at the bathroom, just in time for the men’s raised voices to carry into the room.

 _”What the hell are you getting that boy into!”_ made him flinch, and Bruce’s _”You haven’t got_ any _proof,”_ had him groping in his dresser for socks and slamming open his closet door to find shoes.

“I’m pretty sure you have a bigger wardrobe than me, Richard Grayson,” Barbara announced solemnly, the way she always did when she saw his closet.

“You’re welcome to take any of it,” he replied, exactly as he was supposed to. Instead of bursting into giggles the way she was supposed to, though, Barbara shook her head.

“That isn’t true though, is it?” she asked, looking a little bit sad.

A billion things came to mind for him to say then, but he stamped every one of them down, allowing only a tight, grim smile to show through. “Sure it is,” he said flatly. “You’re my Babs,” he added, tugging her close so he could curl into a hug with her. Her dress was slick and satiny and the perfect emerald to compliment her hair, and her high heels made her even taller than she usually was, but her shoulder smelled nice; like Barbara plus something warm and incense-y; still his Babs, but more. Grown up, maybe? Or just pretending to be.

He pulled away and finished sorting out his attire, and when B and the Commissioner emerged from the bathroom, Barbara was perched on his desk chair and he was trying to decide if he needed cufflinks or not. It _was_ a dance at Gotham Academy. He probably needed cufflinks. Instead though, he saw the sunglasses he’d just finished modifying that afternoon and stashed them in one of his already well-stocked jacket pockets.

“Not exactly the right time of day for that, is it?” the Commissioner asked blandly.

Dick grinned at him. “They’re cool!” he said.

Alfred, upon seeing that Dick was suitably clad, ushered the whole party out of his bedroom and into the formal sitting room for pictures, which Dick stood patiently for, smiling his Wayne smile and gently clasping Barbara's arm and elbow and shoulder as directed.

Just when he thought he must be done, that they could finally leave and go to the dance and drink spiked punch and eat bad hors d'oeuvres, Bruce took his wrist carefully in his hands and fastened a cufflink to his jacket. Dick stared at it; he _recognized_ it, from the painting above the fireplace.

His words stuck in his throat, but he offered up his other wrist without being prompted, and the way Bruce blinked a couple of times and a bitter, pained smile twisted his lips, Dick was pretty sure that had been enough.

When he turned to face Alfred so they could go down to the garage, he had to blink a couple of times himself.

### Kaldur:

So far, Kaldur thought, his entire impression of this spring formal was that it was meant to be a coming-of-age event commemorated by many, many photographs. They’d had to wait in line with dozens of other couples to pose for more photos, even though Artemis’s family (and her sister had been so utterly _familiar_ that it was still ticking at the back of his mind. Where _had_ he met her before?) had taken dozens themselves. It had been good, however. Artemis had been… carefree. He often thought that their two human members were altogether too serious.

Even Robin.

Especially Robin.

Her father had been disconcerting too; not in the same manner as her sister, but still. He had wanted to forcibly remove the man’s hands from his own daughter. The whole thing had him on edge.

Once they were surrounded by other teenagers in formal attire, however, he allowed himself to relax.

“Whoa, nice going Artie!” a blonde girl called out as she whirled past. Kaldur was not an expert on the subject, but he was fairly certain that her jewelry had been studded with genuine gemstones.

“Ugh, Bette. I hate her,” Artemis said, shuddering dramatically. “Remember how I said everyone here is an elitist pig? Yeah, still true.”

“You also said you had friends,” Kaldur pointed out, keeping his arm wrapped loosely around her waist. He was not entirely certain he’d be able to keep track of her in this crowd of glittering people if he let go. Besides, it was surprisingly pleasant to have her so close. He was not normally comfortable with such prolonged contact with others; with the exception of Robin, of course.

It was just as he was thinking this that Artemis removed his hand from her person to wave at someone in the crowd. “Babs!” she shouted. “Dick!”

She started to make her escape, but then she turned and grabbed his hand, her fingers trying to slip between his and then her grip instantly shifting to accommodate the webbing there. He wondered if she didn’t drop it because she was just as concerned about losing him in the crowd, or if she genuinely did not care about that difference.

The got to the edge of the room where the fabric draping the walls created a secluded little grotto, and Artemis didn’t drop his hand to hug Barbara, whom he had met, or to swallow the boy, Dick, up in an embrace that made his free hand twitch.

And he had just been thinking that her carefreeness at this event was a good thing.

He wished Robin had come. They both could have; then he would not feel nearly as out of place. Robin _never_ allowed him to feel asea.

“I’m Kaldur,” he introduced himself, and Dick took his hand firmly and said, with a sly little grin, “I know. Artemis told us about you.”

“Only good things!” Artemis was quick to assert, and then Barbara was clapping her hands.

“I’m going to go grab us some plates and punch. You kids be good, okay?”

Kaldur shook his head at that, and would have offered to help her, but Artemis’s hand was still warm around his.

“So,” Artemis said.

“Yes,” Dick agreed, nodding sagely, and then the two of them burst into uproarious laughter that had Kaldur twitching his lips in response; until, that was, that Dick wrapped his arms around his chest and started gasping, face gray with a pain response Kaldur had seen too often in civilians and his Team alike.

“Are you alright?” Kaldur asked, dropping Artemis’s hand to support the other boy, and blue eyes caught his gaze and held it.

“Yeah, I’m totally-- fine,” he said. Kaldur had the distinct impression that Dick had been about to say something else.

Robin would know what to do here.

“Yeah, Dick has a problem with ‘or somethings’,” Artemis said curtly.

Kaldur raised an eyebrow. Dick grinned wanly and shook his head, the gesture oddly familiar. Maybe it was simply the differences in body language between surfacers and his own people?

“She says there’re two types of people who’ll push you around. Bullies and ‘or somethings’. It’s not that, I just got over-excited and fell down some stairs. I used to be in the circus, you know?”

‘Or somethings’. Bullies and…

Parents, he decided, remembering the way she’d acted around her father.

He had no experience with that, of course. His mother had been… his mother. And he had King Oren and Prince Garth and Queen Mera. None of them would have ever...

Dick’s eyes narrowed. “It’s not like that,” he said quietly. “I swear it isn’t.”

Kaldur jerked with startlement; he hadn’t meant to say any of that aloud.

Barbara came back with three plates neatly arrayed on one arm and four wineglasses delicately clasped in her free hand. Kaldur was suitably impressed.

“Here, I got some with seafood, but this one has none just in case, because I have no idea how you feel about fried squid.”

Fried?

He stared at the plate in horror.

“Ah, we don’t… fry much. Where I am from.”

“Your loss,” Artemis said, taking the crispy golden morsel that Barbara had indicated and popping it into her mouth whole, then chewing it with an expression of extreme delight. Kaldur tried not to smile, but he couldn’t hold it back.

“Man alive you are pretty,” Dick said, and Kaldur laughed. Dick didn’t join in with him as he had with Artemis, but he did smile with genuine pleasure. There was still something dark and hurt lurking beneath the expression, but these were Artemis’s friends, not his, and he had the whole team to worry about, not just one boy, however kind.

However attractive.

He forced himself to focus back on Artemis, but she had an eyebrow raised and was staring at him speculatively. A brief flicker of her eyes towards Dick, and he knew what she wanted to know, and he felt color flood his skin.

“Ooh,” Barbara said. “Well isn’t _that_ something. You three want some privacy?”

“No!” Dick snapped. Then, more mildly, “Babs, you know you’re my favorite, please don’t leave me.”

Kaldur was saved from being forced to answer by the far wall exploding inward.

It should not have been a relief. Certainly the suddenly panicked, screaming teenagers did not make the room _more_ bearable.

“Well,” Dick said in a familiar tone of voice. “That’s _whelming_.”

Kaldur turned to face Artemis’s friend Dick with an expression of shock and a feeling that might have been betrayal, and a woman started speaking into a microphone, and then she snapped her fingers.

He had the perfect angle to watch as Dick’s face transformed into a rictus of terror.

### Dick:

Dick hadn’t actually meant to flirt with Kaldur. Dick Grayson, after all, couldn’t actually afford friends, but Kaldur in clothes that weren’t his usual uniform was very, very attractive, and he was _fourteen_ , and sometimes stuff just slipped out of his mouth without his thinking about it.

The vast feeling of relief he felt at the wall suddenly exploding like that was really unbecoming of a hero, but he was pretty sure Bruce had felt that exact same way once or twice himself,when villains crashed his own parties.

“Well,” he said, Robin creeping up with the prospect of a fight. “That’s whelming.”

He realized his mistake just as a woman snapped, and then…

He _knew_ that snap.

She _couldn’t_ be here; this was a dream, a nightmare, and he’d wake up in a few moments when Alfred shook his shoulder and told him he needed to get out of the car or Babs would be attending the formal on her own.

A moment passed.

Two.

“I want everyone to give up their jewelry, watches, purses, and wallets; my men will be able to accept them. Please remain calm: I promise you that everyone’s parents _will_ be called.”

That voice… it was definitely the same woman. He started hyperventilating, every breath scraping in fast and raw and wrong.

“Hey, Dick,” Babs said. “It’s fine, just, just take off your cufflinks. It’ll be fine; Batman will save us, won’t he?”

He forced himself to meet her eyes. “He’s busy,” Dick said. “With _stuff_.”

Barbara’s eyes narrowed. “Is he.” she said flatly.

Dick forced himself to calm, to separate the parts of him that were crying and screaming for help while her thugs beat him with crowbars and did worse things from the parts of him that had pockets full of useful gear and two teammates at his back.

“We will be fine,” Dick assured. “Batman isn’t the only hero in this town.”

“Indeed,” Kaldur said, and Dick fished in his pocket for the sunglasses and put them on before he turned to face Kaldur.

“Of course not, Kaldur. Haven’t you ever heard of Robin?” he asked. “Batwoman? _Cat_ woman?”

“Catwoman isn’t a hero,” Artemis said. “She’s a thief.”

“Yeah,” Dick said, turning to face her, and her face was more _hers_ , outlined in the HUD he’d dropped into these sunglasses. Seeing Artemis from behind the security of his tech was… better. “But she’s a good guy regardless. _Everyone_ knows that.”

Worse too, because he liked Artemis as a high schooler, almost better than he liked her as a vigilante.

“Hey,” she said. “Those glasses… I know those glasses.”

Kaldur said, neutral and commanding, “Artemis, may I use your sais.”

Artemis hiked up her skirts and untucked two sais from the tulle there, and Dick watched as the HUD ran a search algorithm and came up with the match he was expecting.

“So,” Robin said, grinning. “What else have you got under that skirt of yours?”

“Dick!” Barbara said sharply.

“I have no idea,” Artemis said.

The woman snapped again, and Robin flinched bodily at the sound. He could smell the hot, stuffy air of that warehouse again, and there were hands _everywhere_ , and.

“Robin, I need you to focus,” Aqualad was saying, and Robin sucked in several breaths, feeling lightheaded and queasy.

He looked at them. Artemis had her arms around him, and Aqualad had a hand on his cheek. He leaned into the contact and tried to center himself.

“Sorry, AL,” he said after a few seconds.

“I should have had her stick a couple of bows and a quiver in this thing too,” Artemis said, armed with what could have been a machete and a smaller dagger.

Robin drew his gauntlets from his inner pockets, and then took off his jacket, draping it around Barbara’s shoulders.

“Oh, no way, no how. If you think I’m letting you play hero and not joining in, you’ve got another thought coming,” she said, drawing one of _his_ dominoes out of her purse and sticking it firmly to her face.

Artemis laughed.

“What’s our plan, Aqualad,” Barbara said, ignoring her. The thugs would be able to see them shortly; the little alcove Kaldur they’d found was fairly well concealed, but it wasn’t exactly the Batcave.

“Artemis and Robin go high while you and I distract their leader.”

Robin took that as his cue and scrambled up the molding on the wall. There were huge I-beams supporting the roof, so it wasn’t a big deal for him to get up there, but his ribs ached with the activity, and he was out of breath by the time he was in place. Artemis braced herself next to him, then wrapped a supportive arm around his torso.

“So, R,” she said.

He pushed his glasses up higher on his nose. “Yeah, A?” he replied in the exact same tones she had used.

She shook her head. “I never even suspected,” she started, and then she went quiet and shifted the both of them. He had to gasp hard for breath against the pain and pressure. 

“Pretty sure that’s our distraction,” she said. Kaldur had used the borrowed sais to cut open a part of the decorative wall-scene, which, he had been pretty sure was supposed to be a minaret, and then sent it crashing down over the stage.

The woman dodged the attack and whirled to face Kaldur, who had the sais up in a guard and a grim expression on his face. “Hello,” he said.

Robin tapped a switch on his gauntlet and three little smoke pellets were revealed. He winged one to the back of her head, and she turned at the sting, right into a faceful of his smoke.

Robin dropped to the ground and yelped when it jarred his… everything. Artemis landed quite a bit more gracefully behind him, and the woman’s red, watering eyes went wide and then narrowed in fury. “You! How did you know I’d be here?”

He shrugged. “Just lucky, I guess,” he said.

“Well, we’ll see how you feel about that ‘luck’ in a moment.” She snapped her fingers, and the thugs she’d had circulating for money fanned out behind her. Robin flinched again, and shut his eyes.

 _Bad move, R,_ he thought angrily, trying vainly to force his eyes back open.

“Hey, stupid,” Barbara hollered, and Robin managed to open his eyes long enough to see her taking down a thug with a perfectly executed roundhouse kick, _in heels_ , but then he had to shut them again.

 _Okay,_ he thought. _I’ll just fight in the dark._ He’d done that before anyway. One of the thugs approached, and he could sense him properly, from the noise of his lumbering footsteps to the currents of air across his own skin. It didn’t take much effort to take him down, which made him feel worse, not better, and even with his eyes closed, he knew they were way overwhelmed.

The woman touched his shoulder, and instead of using that gesture to drag her into a fight, he froze.

“You seem distraught, darling birdie,” she said, low and husky.

Robin wanted to shake her off, wanted to _kill_ her.

He couldn’t move.

“He is,” Artemis said, and Robin ducked his head, eyes still closed. “It’s good thing that I’m _totally_ traught. Let him go.”

“But he’ll be such delightful bait for Batman,” the woman sneered. “And I’ve got a few boys who like to play.”

“How about no,” Artemis said, and then another explosion rocked the ballroom.

A familiar voice.

“You’re crashing a _prom_ , Spidey?”

“That isn’t my name!” the woman protested.

Robin opened his eyes.

Yep; actually Sportsmaster, with Cheshire at his side. He glanced at Artemis whose skin had gone as grey as her dress.

“ _Dad_ ,” she hissed, shock and betrayal warring on her face.

“You’re gonna want to leave, Spidey,” Sportsmaster said. “My kid’s first formal dance, you know? Can’t have random villains crashing the place.”

“Oh, really? Isn’t this just… _delightful_. And which of these fluttering little flowers belongs to you, then?”

Artemis whirled back on her, her knives up and ready. “I am _not_ his!” she snarled, and launched herself at the woman.

Robin had known she could handle melee with a couple of different weapons, but seeing her attack with the blades was a different thing entirely from _knowing_.

“Artemis!” he snapped out when he saw her going for the kill. “Stop!”

He had zipties in his pants pockets, and Sportsmaster and Cheshire were taking on the woman’s thugs, so he tackled Artemis out of the way, then pressed a knee to ‘Spidey’s’ back. “Hands,” he grunted.

Artemis was staring at him with gratitude.

Robin quickly had her bound, and the woman looked at him as he climbed hastily off of her, blood pouring from a cut on her cheek. “My _hero_ ,” she said, and Artemis kicked her, hard, in the side. Robin winced, because he was quite personally acquainted with the feeling of broken ribs right then, but then he wished he’d been the one to do it.

“Wrong,” Artemis said coolly. “ _My_ hero.”

Robin nodded, and then he grabbed Barbara’s hand and dragged her back to their little alcove, and started stripping off his gear. His suit jacket was untouched, and he had to hope no one would notice that the slacks were ruined.

“Let me get your tie,” Barbara said, slipping his domino back into her purse. Cheshire appeared from nowhere to retrieve her sais, and then the police were there in force.

Dick Grayson pasted on an entirely false smile that covered up entirely genuine shock and fear.

“Show time, guys,” he said. “Welcome to the world of the secret identity.”

[](http://miki-moo.livejournal.com/42328.html)

### Kaldur:

Kaldur entered his room with three mugs of hot cocoa and paused in the doorway, taking in the sight of Artemis and Robin... Dick... curled around each other in their ruined formal attire.

"I wouldn't have been sorry to kill her, Rob," Artemis was saying. Kaldur cleared his throat and approached the bed; he did not have the mugs as well in hand as Barbara would have, and a little splashed over the sides.

"Thanks, Kaldur," Dick said, and he didn't even pretend to smile. He just took his mug and settled himself a little closer to Artemis in tacit invitation for Kaldur to join them.

Kaldur sipped the warm drink, then settled at the edge of his mattress.

"So," Artemis said. "By the way; my dad is Sportsmaster."

"I had noticed," Kaldur said. "I thought he seemed familiar, but then ascribed that to his being _your_ father."

"My dad's the second richest man in the country," Dick said. "So I think we're even."

"Oh, we are _so_ not even!" Artemis announced, wrapping an arm securely around Dick and ever so gently tugging him closer. "My dad's tried to kill us. Your dad is Batman. And a genius."

"It's a secret," Dick said unnecessarily.

Kaldur nodded anyway.

"Ugh this _dress_ ," Artemis announced, handing her cocoa mug to Kaldur so she could reach behind herself, twist up, and unzip it. "Better," she claimed once it hung loosely on her body. Kaldur had seen much more of her before, but now he couldn't take his eyes off of the tantalizing hints of what was under her clothes.

"Is that a romantic overture, A?" Dick asked.

"Don't be stupid, Rob, you're _fourteen_ , now give me back my cocoa."

They sat in silence for awhile, sipping on their cocoa and trying to sort through the night's revelations.

Then, Kaldur had to ask: "Robin-- Dick. What's... I cannot help but notice that you have been out of sorts this past week."

"My turn to get naked, then?" Dick said, handing his cocoa to Artemis and darting to his feet. As he took off his shirt, ugly bruises were revealed, and long purple welts, and scabbing slices. "I got tortured. I got... it was bad. Worse than I've had to endure before, you know?" his eyes darted to Artemis, but she was _Artemis_ \-- just as protective of other people's secrets as her own. Robin slipped his belt from his slacks, and then stepped out of them. The bruising continued down his legs, and Kaldur did not look away.

"The woman who attacked the formal?" he asked, because with that context, Artemis's comment about killing made sense.

"Yeah," Dick said, and he wouldn't meet Kaldur's eyes, and he just stood there. So Kaldur reached out to catch him close, careful of the injuries he could see, careful of the ones he could not.

"So," Kaldur said. "I believe this is normally called a 'sleepover'. M'gann will be quite jealous." Artemis waited until Kaldur had coaxed Dick under the blankets before handing him back his cocoa.

"Drink it," she ordered. "It makes everything better."

Dick took a sip, and Kaldur gave him an encouraging smile. Artemis squirmed out of her dress without spilling a drop of her cocoa and, clad in nothing but her silky, dress-like undergarment (Kaldur wondered if this was the sort of thing all surfacer women wore under their clothes), got under the covers herself. Kaldur stood up to change into pajamas and grabbed two extra night shirts from his drawer in case either of his guests changed their mind about their attire, and he slid into bed and finally took a sip of his own cocoa.

"Thanks," Dick whispered.

Kaldur smiled at him, but did not otherwise respond.

"Don't be such an idiot, Rob," Artemis said.

Dick dug his elbow into her side, and Kaldur watched them fondly.

**Author's Note:**

> Remember to go comment on [**mikimoo**](http://archiveofourown.org/users/mikimoo)'s [art post](http://miki-moo.livejournal.com/42328.html).


End file.
